Participants were drawn from countries throughout the African continent, including Kenya, Sudan, UR Tanzania, South Africa and Zimbabwe. Diseases such as cancer, diabetes and other non-communicable diseases have overtaken HIV as the major causes of death on the continent.

The workshop brought together a community of researchers, clinicians, and ethical regulators with a shared interest in building capacity for stem cell research, tissue engineering, biomaterials and regenerative medicine on the African continent. The multidisciplinary team of experts were able to network, train and mentor young scientists from the continent. Stem cell experts were from the African continent as well as from India and Brazil.

The workshop consisted of a series of lectures and presentations from experts and early career scientists over five days with hands-on practical training sessions being done at ICGEB, University of Cape Town and Stellenbosch University. Early career scientists were taken through various techniques used in Stem Cell research such as immunofluorescence, Confocal microscopy and flow cytometry.

Kevin Dzobo also accompanied the scientists visiting the ICGEB Cape Town component on this occasion through the various techniques in use in the laboratories working on Stem Cell research.